August 21, 2008

8/21 — Today’s the last day of my Dales Way walk, and as every morning, it began very misty with very low clouds. (They’ve been rising as the day wears on.) Alongside a river again, this time the Kent. The air was still this morning, listening, and the trees were still, listening for the passage of something, so I spent a long while trying to understand the speech of the river. Here it complains about things in its path, and there it growls at the rocks to get out of its way, or shoves them away forcefully with a clunk. Yet another place it only laughs and skits past them with ease. It’s surprised by a weir — oops! slipped right over! — and it murmurs thanks to the oaks for their shade. It draws silent and thoughtful, but not for long, for the river’s nature is chatty, and soon it’s calling to itself around a bend and urging its tail to hurry and follow.

I’m at Windemere. Lost my pedometer today — darn! — and am wondering if I should look up an outdoor shop to buy another or assume the universe is telling me to quit counting. (But it’s fun!) Better pay for my I-net time and go look for my B&B. Only the largest places have public internet access here; I’ll be in Keswick for three days so should be online then, but then probably in radio silence again for a week or thereabouts. If I can get some photos to Mom Jean for posting, I will (but so far I haven’t been anywhere I could use my laptop or access a USB jack. How do other people do this?)